Documents prepared by non-professional writers often contain a number of errors. Some of these errors are simple spelling errors. Other errors may be somewhat more complex, such as orthographic errors or grammatical errors. Documents containing errors may reflect negatively on the writer of the document. For example, the recipient of a document containing errors may make the presumption that the writer lacks proper education, that the writer is lazy, that the writer prepared the document hastily or that the writer has other negative characteristics. Most writers want to avoid having these presumptions made about them and, thus, try to prepare their documents as accurately as possible.
Word processor program modules have been effective in helping users eliminate many errors in their documents. For example, most modem word processor program modules provide effective tools for proofing the composition of electronic documents. Two tools are spell checker program modules and grammar checker program modules. These tools help the writer of electronic documents correct many of the errors in their electronic documents.
Most spell checker program modules include a dictionary, or a list of words, to support spell check operations. To spell check a document, the spell checker program module compares the words in the document with the dictionary to determine if the words in the document correspond to, or match, words in the dictionary. If a word does not correspond to a word in the dictionary, then an indication is provided to the user that the word is not in the dictionary and, therefore, may be misspelled. In addition, many spell checker program modules provide other features, such as lists of suggestions to replace the misspelled word, indications of words that have been repeated and indications of words that may need to be capitalized.
Most grammar checker program modules check documents for sentences that may have grammatical errors or a weak writing style. If the grammar checker program module detects a possible error, then an indication is provided to the user. Grammar checker program modules typically check for subject-verb agreement, proper punctuation, passive verbs, etc. For many errors, the grammar checker program module will provide suggestions on ways to correct the sentence or improve the writing style of the sentence.
Spell checker program modules and grammar checker program modules were "stand-alone" products when they were initially introduced to personal computer users. In other words, spell checker program modules or grammar checker program modules were separate program modules from each other and from the word processor program module. These "stand-alone" program modules would scan documents of various formats, present errors, and suggest corrections, usually through a user interface, or dialog box. Later, the spell checker and grammar checker became integrated with word processor program modules. For example, the manufacturer of the word processor program module would license the spell checker program module or grammar checker program module from an independent software vendor and provide separate user interfaces for spelling and grammar.
The separate user interfaces for spell checker and grammar checker program modules have several drawbacks for users of word processor program modules. One drawback of separate user interfaces for spell checking and grammar checking is that the distinction between spelling and grammar is unnatural to the user. Separate spell checking and grammar checking is counterintuitive to the manual process of proofing a document. For example, rarely does a writer say to a friend, "Please proofread my document and point out all the spelling errors, but do not point out any of the grammatical errors." Instead, manual proofing of a document typically includes checking the document for spelling errors and grammatical errors. However, in many word processor program modules, the spell checking and grammar checking are performed separately and the results are displayed to the user in separate user interfaces.
A second drawback of separate user interfaces for spell checker and grammar checker program modules is that the user of the word processor program module must become familiar with two separate user interfaces and the two separate sets of commands associated with these user interfaces. The spell checker user interface and grammar checker user interface, however, are often inconsistent in operation. For example, in "WORD", version 7.0, a word processor program manufactured by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., a misspelled word is displayed in a spelling dialog, but the sentence in which the misspelled word appears is not displayed in the dialog. On the other hand, in "WORD", version 7.0, the grammar dialog displays the entire sentence in which the grammatical error appears. Users of word processor program modules expect the user interfaces for spelling errors and grammatical errors to function similarly and might become confused or frustrated if they do not. The user also must spend time and effort to learn how to use the separate user interfaces for spelling and grammar. Often, users are unwilling to spend the time and effort and do not completely proof their documents.
Another drawback of the separate methods for spell checking and grammar checking a document is that users are often reluctant to conduct a full review of a document. To conduct a full review, the user must execute a spell check, return to the beginning of the document, and then execute a grammar check. This is a very unnatural process for users. In addition, some users forget to return to the beginning of a document and conduct a grammar check after conducting a spell check. Therefore, many users do not conduct a grammar check. Users that do not conduct a grammar check may write documents that contain errors that would have been readily detected by a grammar checker. Some of these undetected errors are errors that the user expects to be found by the spell checker, but they are not. For example, no spell checker would flag an error in the sentence "I think your the greatest", but a grammar checker would indicate that "your" should be "you're". Most users perceive this to be a spelling error even though it is an error that will only be detected by a grammar checker because every word in the sentence was found in the spelling dictionary. Thus, the separate methods for spell checking and grammar checking suffer from the additional drawback that users are discouraged from conducting a full review of their documents.
Therefore there is a need in the art for a word processor program module that simplifies the process of verifying the accuracy of spelling and grammatical composition of a document.
There is also a need for a word processor program module that verifies the accuracy of spelling and grammatical composition of a document in a manner that is intuitive to a user and that resembles the manual process of proofing a document.
There is also a need for a word processor program module that provides a user interface for combined spelling and grammar functions that are consistent in operation.
There is a further need for a word processor program module that encourages the user to conduct a grammar check and a spelling check so that the spelling and grammatical composition of documents is improved.